Some days you feel like a dairy cow and you’re tired of being milked. It gets aggravating to poked, prodded, pushed, pulled, and plucked day-in-and-day out. Some days you’ve had enough.

This is one of those days.

Our personal data (i.e. our privacy) has become the new frontier of marketing. Our preferences, buying habits, online patterns and circle of friends and influencers is the new gold mine. And we gladly give it up for convenience.

So here’s a question:

Should companies be allowed to collect your personal data when you visit their websites? Or should they be required to specifically ask permission to mine this data?

And I’m not talking about asking permission in the form of pages long terms of service agreements that no one reads. I’m talking about a pop-up that open as soon you arrive allowing you to either opt in or opt out of having your personal data collected.

And one follow-up question.

Should companies be forced to be completely transparent about what data they do have and have to share it with you if you ask for it?

8 Responses to “Should We Block Big Brother Tactics by Companies?”

I think companies should be required to ask permission, but I doubt they ever will as it would probably decrease their profits from advertising that internet gurus most likely live off of. I also wonder the direct sales relation as a result of somewhat untargeted ads. I can’t say internet ads have ever prompted me to purchase a service or product. For example, yesterday I googled a product sold by Sephora only because it was relevant to a blog post I was writing. Next thing I know I had countless ads popping up on Google and Facebook from Sephora. I’ve stepped into the store once in my life and have never purchased an item from their store, nor do I ever plan to.

Hi Pro:
Companies won’t ask if they aren’t required, too. It would take a change in federal laws in the U.S. Most of us don’t think that advertising works on us, but we’re all sadly mistaken. It works very well, especially ads that are targeted to our preferences and shopping habits.

True. I guess the next question it prompts is how would those companies continue to make money. No doubt the advertising has an effective impact. I suppose I am just less aware of it because I don’t do much online shopping.

They would make money by selling products, services and advertisements. The same thing brick and mortar stores, newspapers and magazines and other business did long before the internet. Just because you can track, catalog and take information off of people’s computers doesn’t mean we have to allow them to do so.

I’ve been on and offline since the late 80’s. As the years have gone by and I’ve sat in business conference after conference, I’ve seen the big brother pattern also. When I try to explain to people what’s going on, most are clueless. The whole “what’s your facebook page?” “you’re NOT on Facebook, OMG!” etc. actually makes me laugh sometimes. I really want to say “you mean you’re really allowing people to track your every move?!” or something to let them know how serious the problem really is. Most just shrug it off like cows chewing cud and lining up for the slaughter. It’s amazing to me. The younger generation actually has some idea they are being tracked but it’s something they find interesting and really don’t get it. One of the kids said to me “Hey, Mrs. R, you were right, I can get on facebook and find out where people are by clicking on the name, it will take me right to where the person is at!”
“Really?! and that’s okay with the person?”
GPS capabilities are great when used without intervention by someone wanting to spy, be creepy, or stalk someone else. When I explained to the youth the situation from a different perspective, she just starred at me. lol More people need to be aware of what’s going on and more adults need to turn off the gps on their kids phones.

Tracking and collection of information without express and explicit consent is like being brought into a

room of pickpockets hired expressly to steal from you while the visible website is winking and nodding at

you.

That websites stoop to these tactics in an attempt to justify the failure of their ‘business model’ is a

breach of trust of monumental proportions.

The Numbers Game

Advertiser Supported Media (ASM) has been with us since Poor Richards Almanac with various degrees of

success. Dead Tree publications used circulation and subscription numbers to promote their publications in

reaching for advertiser money. These at best were fuzzy numbers despite companies auditing these numbers.

An example is the waiting rooms across the land. Did these magazines lead to subscriptions? Did the adverts

increase sales? Fuzzy Numbers.

This was however how periodicals supported themselves. The popularity of the subject/content driving

circulation provided income to continue publication.

ASM is also how newspapers survived/flourished with additional revenue from announcements, classifieds, and

ad inserts. The only limits to growth were exposure and distribution and fuzzy circulation numbers.

Every one of these media properties had an in house department to manage and sell advertising. Hold that

thought.

With the arrival of the internet, three significant things happened. The cost of publication plummeted, as

pixels and especially color pixels cost the same as monochrome, Distribution became a global 24/7 access

presentation, its significant drop in distribution costs, and for the first time, real verifiable

circulation numbers were available.

Every website on the web is hosted somewhere, and as part of hosting, a server log file is created in real

time. Every page request, every completed request, every image request and delivery (images being the

largest format for advertisements) is logged.Where the request came from, IP Address, length of time on the

page, links clicked, and browser type, whether computer, tablet, smart phone, and even operating system.
All of this information is available to every website owner, and contains true and accurate circulation

information.

All of this without using a single cookie, webbug, iframe, or third party.”partner”. Even your site has a

log file and because it is a WordPress site you have additional log files specific to WordPress.

On the dark side, you have a number of bugs happening here The Twitter button(2 trackers), the Facebook

Social Graph(1), the LinkedIn button(1). These three trackers alleged to be nothing more than connections

to other Social Media Sites are tracking your visitors and leading to…More ASM sites. Even if visitors do

not have accounts or participation on these sites, statistics and accounts are being created for tracking.

All three of these sites which started as community circles have morphed into AD Sites every bit as

intrusive as the large Media sites. Perhaps the most disheartening is the use of Quantcast which has 5

trackers embedded on your site.

This is a bit disingenuous if you are have a conversation about tracking.

By your own posting, disclosure and notification should be taking place here. I can understand

Twitter,LinkedIn, and even Facebook, but Quantcast? If your employer is paying for this site, I may

understand, but if this is your out of pocket expression then you are deep in it:)

Perhaps in a future posting you can reveal what information that Quantcast is getting, and how it is

helping either you or your company depending on who is writing the check.

moving on…..

“Should companies be allowed to collect your personal data when you visit their websites? ”

Outside of what is in the logfiles, NO. Period. Full Stop.
If companies are running ASM sites, and are not handling their advertising in house, this points to a

failure of their own making.

Advertising has always been a spray and pray activity. The things that the internet brings to the table are

Allow me to make a mea culpa and an apology for the pot- kettle-black remarks regarding the appearance of Quantcast trackers on your site.
It bugged me because you have always been upfront and honest about what you do. We may disagree, but I have never found you to be less than forthright.

It seems that WordPress Stats is the culprit. Buried in the source code written in Javascript is the callout for Quantcast tracking. So you are not alone, in being infected by trackers that you did not sign up for. Neither did I on the two wordpress blogs I have, nor does anybody else.